NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Tony Wyss-Coray, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford Medicine, the UCSF School of Medicine and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, has published Tabula Muris, a single-cell atlas of mouse cell types and their gene expression patterns containing nearly 100,000 cells from 20 organs and tissues.
The mouse is the most important model organism used in biomedical research and plays a crucial role as a proxy for human disease. The data in Tabula Muris allow for comparison of gene expression patterns across cell types and between tissues, including an analysis of shared cell types from distinct anatomical locations, as well as a detailed understanding of how cell type identity is determined by the molecules that bind to the genome to regulate gene expression.
Wyss-Coray said, “It is our hope and expectation that the Tabula Muris data will prove invaluable to the Alzheimer’s work being done globally. Specifically, we think that analysis of the gene expression patterns and transcriptional regulators from brain tissue and inflammatory cell populations in healthy and aged mice may shed light on the most relevant pathways controlling disease progression. Without understanding these pivotal patterns and how they degenerate with age, we will never be able to design therapeutic interventions and treatments for a disease that claims the lives of so many.”
A paper describing this research was published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.
NOMIS is supporting Wyss-Coray’s continued research into identifying the circulatory factors that influence aging and using those factors to rejuvenate the aging or degenerated brain.
